Criticism of AT&T's vague and potentially nasty Terms of Service (ToS) for its …

Update

AT&T has released the promised update to its controversial Terms of Service. Gone is the language giving AT&T the right to terminate your account for content that "tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T." While retaining the right to terminate an account for violations of its Acceptable Use Policy or the law, AT&T will no longer hold the threat of cancellation of the heads of users critical of the telecom. From the revised ToS:

5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns.

"We feel that the clarifying language better reflects our actual long-held policy, which respects AT&T’s customers' rights to freely voice their opinions and concerns," AT&T spokesperson Brad Mays told Ars. "In addition, we are in the process of reviewing our entire Terms of Service to ensure it reflects AT&T’s ongoing and unblemished commitment to freedom of expression as outlined in the language above."

Although it has largely flown under the radar due to the attention focused on AT&T, Verizon also has a similar clause in its ToS, which it says is there to "stop anyone who might represent themselves as Verizon in an attempt to do harm." Verizon will also be changing its ToS and eliminating such language altogether.

Original story

Criticism of AT&T's vague and potentially nasty Terms of Service (ToS) have led the company to reformulate its legal language to address concerns raised by customers, an AT&T spokesman told Ars Technica this evening.

The original ToS appeared to give AT&T the legal right to boot Internet service subscribers who criticize the company, thanks to a vague provision meant to protect the AT&T brand. In section 5 of its legal ToS, AT&T stipulated the following (emphasis added):

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.

The company now says that it will significantly revise the language to make it more clear what AT&T actually intends to enforce. An AT&T spokes person tells Ars that the changes are all about "making sure customers know that they are the most important asset and that we are listening."

"We are revising the terms of service to clarify our intent, and the language in question will be revised to reflect AT&T's respect for our customers' right to express opinions and concerns over any matter they wish," the spokesperson told Ars. "We will also make clear that we do not terminate service because a customer expresses their opinion about AT&T."

When asked about a hypothetical future situation in which a subscriber might criticize AT&T, the spokesman said that AT&T's record in this department speaks for itself, as the company claims to have never terminated a subscriber's account as a result of criticism aimed at the company. "We have never and will never terminate a customer's service for criticizing AT&T," the spokesperson promised.

When asked why AT&T did not immediately address the contract language when the issue was raised, we were told that revisions were planned once the company could see how its customers were reacting. Owing to the complexity of legal language and AT&T's desire to get it right, the AT&T spokesperson said that the process couldn't be completed "overnight."

The move is more proof positive that the telecoms are listening, and sometimes even acting. AT&T's decision to change its ToS is the right course of action, and last week we saw Verizon cave on a censorship issue once the company saw the tsunami of criticism headed its way. Our voices are being heard loud and clear... and sometimes even taken seriously.

Oh no!

Ken Fisher / Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation.